Controversial saying from Martin Luther

While one or two parts are taken out of context, this does reflect Luther's negative view of humanity and intolerance of any dissent. This is the view reflected by St. Augustine and his influence on Western Christianity.

Let's not get caught totally into his ravings while irrational today were commonplace in the 16th century. We owe Luther a great deal in he managed to break the power of the Catholic Church and set a path with other reformers of that day to our modern society. His ideas are not new and are reflected through St. Augustine and Marcion to the Apostle Paul.

While it's true some Christian fundamentalists want to revert to a world of state enforced religious terror, the vast majority of Lutherans and mainline Protestants have renounced this level of superstition and intolerance.

Martin Luther, German leader of the Protestant Revolution, founder
of Lutheranism, Protestant theologian, was behind much of Protestant theology.

An examination of some of his quotes makes it quite obvious that we are
not looking at a rational man. Modern Protestants would do well to learn
something about the heritage of their present theology.

"God does not work salvation for fictitious sinners. Be a sinner
and sin vigorously.... Do not for a moment imagine that this life is the
abiding place of justice; sin must be committed."

"Sin cannot tear you away from him [Christ], even though you
commit adultery a hundred times a day and commit as many murders."

"A large number of deaf, crippled and blind people are afflicted
solely through the malice of the demon. And one must in no wise doubt that
plagues, fevers and every sort of evil come from him."

"An earthly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons.
Some must be free, some serfs, some rulers, some subjects."

"As for the demented, I hold it certain that all beings deprived
of reason are thus afflicted only by the Devil."

"As to the common people, ... one has to be hard with them and
see that they do their work and that under the threat of the sword and
the law they comply with the observance of piety, just as you chain up
wild beasts."

"At Poltersberg, there is a lake similarly cursed. If you throw
a stone into it, a dreadful storm immediately arises, and the whole neighboring
district quakes to its center. 'Tis the devils kept prisoner there."

"At Sussen, the Devil carried off, last Good Friday, three grooms
who had devoted themselves to him."

"Demons live in many lands, but particularly in Prussia."

"How often have not the demons called 'Nix,' drawn women and
girls into the water, and there had commerce with them, with fearful consequences."

"I almost feel like throwing Jimmy into the stove, as the priest
in Kulenberg did."

"I feel much freer now that I am certain the pope is the Antichrist."

"I maintain that some Jew wrote it [the Book of James] who probably
heard about Christian people but never encountered any."

"I myself saw and touched at Dessay, a child of this sort, which
had no human parents, but had proceeded from the Devil. He was twelve years
old, and, in outward form, exactly resembled ordinary children."

"I should have no compassion on these witches; I should burn
them all."

"Idiots, the lame, the blind, the dumb, are men in whom the
devils have established themselves: and all the physicians who heal these
infirmities, as though they proceeded from natural causes, are ignorant
blockheads...."

"In many countries there are particular places to which devils
more especially resort. In Prussia there is an infinite number of evil
spirits."

"In Switzerland, on a high mountain, not far from Lucerne, there
is a lake they call Pilate's Pond, which the Devil has fixed upon as one
of the chief residences of his evil spirits...."

"Many demons are in woods, in waters, in wildernesses, and in
dark poolly places ready to hurt...people."

"Many sweat to reconcile St. Paul and St. James, but in vain.
'Faith justifies' and 'faith does not justify' contradict each other flatly.
If any one can harmonize them I will give him my doctor's hood and let
him call me a fool."

"No gown worse becomes a than the desire to be wise."

"Our bodies are always exposed to Satan. The maladies I suffer
are not natural, but Devil's spells."

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has: it never comes
to the aid of spiritual things, but--more frequently than not --struggles
against the Divine Word...."

"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must
trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it
sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God."

"Snakes and monkeys are subjected to the demon more than other
animals. Satan lives in them and possesses them. He uses them to deceive
men and to injure them."

"Some [demons] are also in the thick black clouds, which cause
hail, lightning and thunder, and poison the air, the pastures and grounds."

"The best way to get rid of the Devil, if you cannot kill it
with the words of Holy Scripture, is to rail at and mock him. Music, too,
is very good; music is hateful to him, and drives him far away. "

"The damned whore Reason...."

"The Devil can so completely assume the human form, when he
wants to deceive us, that we may well lie with what seems to be a woman,
of real flesh and blood, and yet all the while 'tis only the Devil in the
shape of a woman. 'Tis the same with women, who may think that a man is
in bed with them, yet 'tis only the Devil; and...the result of this connection
is oftentimes an imp of darkness, half mortal, half devil...."

"The Devil...clutched hold of the miserable young man...and
flew off with him through the ceiling, since which time nothing has been
heard of [him]."

"The Devil fears the word of God, He can't bite it; it breaks
his teeth."

"The Devil, it is true, is not exactly a doctor who has taken
degrees, but he is very learned, very expert for all that. He has not been
carrying on his business during thousands of years for nothing...."

"The Devil, too, sometimes steals human children; it is not
infrequent for him to carry away infants within the first six weeks after
birth, and to substitute in their place imps...."

"The fact that [the biblical book] Hebrews is not an epistle
of St. Paul, or of any other apostle, is proved by what it says in chapter
two...."

"The winds are nothing else but good or bad spirits. Hark! how
the Devil is puffing and blowing...."

"There is no rustic so rude but that, if he dreams or fancies
anything, it must be the whisper of the Holy Ghost, and he himself a prophet."

"This fool [Copernicus] wishes to reverse the entire science
of astronomy; but sacred scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun
to stand still, and not the earth."

"To be a Christian, you must pluck out the eye of reason."

"...two devils rose from the water, and flew off through the
air, crying, 'Oh, oh, oh!' and turning one over another, in sportive mockery...."

"We are at fault for not slaying them [the Jews]."

"We know, on the authority of Moses, that longer than years the world did not exist."

"We may well lie with what seems to be a woman of flesh and
blood, and yet all the time it is only a devil in the shape of a woman."

"We need not invite the Devil to our table; he is too ready
to come without being asked. The air all about us is filled with demons...."

"We should throw the Epistle of James out of this school [the
University of Wittenberg]....

"What shall we do with...the Jews?...I advise that all their
prayer books and Talmudic writings...are to be taken from them."

"What shall we do with...the Jews?...I advise that safe-conduct
on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews."

"What shall we do with...the Jews? I advise that their rabbis
be forbidden to teach on pain of loss of life and limb."

"What shall we do with...the Jews?...set fire to their synagogues
or schools and bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that
no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them."

"What shall we do with...the Jews?...their homes also should
be razed and destroyed."

"When I was a child there were many witches, and they bewitched
both cattle and men, especially children."

"Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of
his reason."

"Women...have but small and narrow chests, and broad hips, to
the end that they should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear
and bring up children."

"So tenaciously should we cling to the world revealed by the
Gospel, that were I to see all the Angels of Heaven coming down to me to
tell me something different, not only would I not be tempted to doubt a
single syllable, but I would shut my eyes and stop my ears, for they would
not deserve to be either seen or heard."